Best Cartoonist Award

Taking a break from my sketching a catalog cover tonight and a few thoughts hit me.

Bill Watterson is my favorite cartoonist. Not only for "Calvin and Hobbes," although that certainly qualifies. His wit, his comic timing, and his draftsmanship were superb. But, the reason he is my favorite is he did it as an artistic expression foremost, and when it was such a popular and financial success he was able to walk away from it. It never became his addiction.

That is a rare gift. I would love to meet him some day. He was not a National Cartoonist Society member, though we honored him twice with our highest award, the Reuben. Alas, it was 7 years before I received my first NCS award, so I never got to meet him.

My only disappointment with him is, if I had been in his shoes, I would have wanted to share a little of the intangibles of artistry and life choices with the people he might have met in our profession who share his values. I still hope I get the chance one day.

I surely admire him.

Another Pittman

Wow, it has been so long since I have blogged I almost forgot my login info!

This blog is not about me or my work. It's about my older brother, Scott. His life was cut short at 28, many years ago, but he was one great brother. Where I excelled in music and arts, he excelled in sports. I was playing drums in the high school band when I saw him return a kickoff 99+ yards for a touchdown! A state record at the time! His high school football team had a state championship record where they were not only unbeaten, but every game they were unscored upon!

In baseball, I saw him pitch the only perfect game I ever saw. And I mean TRUE perfect game-- three batters up, three batters down for every inning. No balls, no fouls-- every pitch a strike!

As it was getting near the last inning, the opposing team had a hitter come to the plate who was renowned for hitting a home run almost every time up. My brother had struck him out each previous time at bat, but certainly not this last time at the plate. No one could fan this amazing slugger every time.

Then I saw something I'd never seen before-- my brother switched his pitching style. Instead of taking a wind-up as most pitchers do, he simply faced the batter and all of a sudden tossed the ball! "Quick pitching" it is called. I never even heard of it. It gets the timing of the batter completely off as they see no wind-up and no notice of when the ball is going to be released.

And it worked! The slugger was completely bamboozled! Swinging sometimes before the ball reached the plate, and sometimes after it was already in the catcher's glove.

My brother was always proud of my academic, musical, and artistic accomplishments. I wish I had told him how proud I was of his sports ability. He was the best natural athlete I ever saw.

Good Friends Are Priceless

Today, my good friend, Nick Meglin, longtime editor of MAD Magazine, gave me some Jack Davis originals from a MAD publication. Jack probably influenced every cartoonist alive with his work, not the least--me! He presented me with my second Reuben award from the National Cartoonists Society, which is a special treasure for many reasons. What a thrill to have his original work which so influenced me! Nick and I are going to do a book together. I am excited! To work with talents such as Nick is a rare privilege in our profession. They are labors of love. And I've found, from my years in this business, they are the projects that are most satisfying irrespective of financial gain. It's an opportunity to work with a fellow artist and produce something wonderful as a collaboration! What a great occupation!

Rough to Finished Art

I'm uploading this rough-to-finish sequence to show the development of an illustration. This was one in a series of pieces done for a Wildlife article on cockroaches.

In some ways, the sketch has a charm all its own that could serve as a piece of finished art. I think illustrators often like our sketches better than the finished art for their looseness and spontaneity.

Illustrations copyright J. Pittman, 2008

You can see the sketch, of course, is pencil, while the finished art is pen and ink. The color, in both cases, was done digitally in Corel Painter. The finished art's color was made a little more intense and using blue reflected light for more contrast. The background was changed to be more of a vignette. Either drawing would have probably worked, but the whole series was done with pen and ink with crosshatching to complement the color washes.

The Animated Sitcom That Never Was

Yowza, it's been some time since I blogged! Easy to get behind. I came across these images in my files recently of a treatment I worked on for an animated series that was pitched to Fox several years back when there were rumors "The Simpsons" was in its final season. This concept, "The Wasbands," was kind of an "Odd Couple-squared," featuring four middle-aged divorced guys who shared the same apartment. The foursome featured a shameless womanizing nightclub owner, a finicky Harvard professor, a good ol' boy redneck, and a neurotic marriage counselor who experienced a failed marriage himself.

The concept was interesting and had much potential for the humorous interaction among the lead characters--it's a shame it never got into production. But every venture is great practice, and you never know how the experience will be woven into your career to give you skills for a different project on down the road. For example, the years I produced a comic strip were helpful in giving me a good sense of sequencing and pacing necessary for the work I've done on storyboards for numerous TV commercials.

One of the great things about being self-employed is being able to create projects like this one that really interest you. Some fly and some don't, but the practice contributes to the advancement of your career.

It's the Economy, Stupid

You know, there's a lot of doom and gloom in the news economically. I emphatically believe, if people would turn off their tv's and radios to the doomsters, ignore the politicians who have an agenda to make you dependent on them to fix the economic mess they helped create, and just go about business as usual, thankful for the opportunities that abound and creatively seek where you have talents and goods to offer, the economy would fix itself.

So much of Wall Street is just plain guesswork, gambling on what may or may not be. Just the rumors of wars or shortages bring a decline. And it's not real-- it's a perception that causes the fluctuations.

Have faith in your talents and abilities. Be creative. Look for needs to fill and offer your services at a competitive rate. This is still the land of opportunity.

During the Great Depression, some businesses thrived. What were they? Entertainment that met a need for people to escape. Breakfast companies (who could do without Ovaltine and oatmeal?) that provided a good start to the day to tackle life's problems. And information sources that people scoured to find opportunities.

If I may be a little bit religious, the Bible says God knows your needs, even before you ask. Ask. Trust. In good faith, do.

Cartoon Cavalcade

When I was a child, my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Howard, gave me a cartoon anthology compiled by Thomas Craven called Cartoon Cavalcade. I still have it today, though the spine has long since worn off due to my numerous perusings over the years. It covers cartooning by the decade, starting with the late 1800's through the 1940's. It's a great overview of many of the early comic strips, gag panels, and even a few Disney stills are included.

I can still feel that rush of excitement that I had as a child whenever I open the book. It was my first exposure to early masters like Charles Dana Gibson, Gluyas Williams, Rube Goldberg, and Charles Addams. The idea that there were grown-ups in the world getting paid to draw funny pictures was a thrilling idea for a fourth grader. And it's still an amazing concept to me today.

It's hard to measure the impact that book had on my development as a cartoonist, and I am so grateful my teacher had the insight to give it to me. I notice the book is available on Amazon today from various used booksellers. I could probably get a fresher copy, but it's kind of like a badge of honor to have my worn-spine version. It's a reminder of how dedicated I was to learn my craft.